Notes / Commercial Description:
As we spiral further toward the end of the Mayan calendar, Tröegs is brewing up a special beer to commemorate the expiration of planet Earth. Celebrate the countdown to extinction and raise a goblet of this colossal Russian Imperial Stout as we plummet into oblivion. If your tongue doesn’t disintegrate as a result of the birthday party cheesecake jellybean BOOM, it most certainly will wreak major havoc on your taste buds. ¿Impending Descent? is as enormous, face-melting, and palate-numbing as it sounds. If there ever was a last beer to enjoy before the apocalypse, this is it!

Reviews by Kegatron:

12oz bottle. Black with a angry looking dark mocha head. This maintains a big robust look to it. Smells of chocolate, vanila, acrid roast, dark fruit and spicy alcohol sweetness. The nose is very heavy with that dark fruit character. The taste is similar, with an aggressive mix of citric bitterness, burnt roasted coffee and pithy dark fruits. Sticky notes of chocolate, vanilla and caramel add a bold balancing nature to this. Feel is medium bodied with a firm carb that blows up a bit but is undercut by some chewiness. Alcohol adds a warm spicy sweetness to the flavor profile but is never overly hot feeling. That 11% is really well hid here and adds just the right amount of character to this. This is definitely brash and a bit unrefined with its flavors (especially that roast) but it still managed to stay mostly smooth and balanced for the size and aggressiveness of it. This is an interesting take on an Imperial Stout that seems to change every time I have it.

More User Reviews:

A: Pours black and viscous with a dense finger of mocha colored head that slowly faded into a faint collar.
S: Huge and rich notes of deep dark malt, dark chocolate, sweet fudge brownie, leather, and maybe a hint of dark fruit. Very rich smelling but there is not a trace of alcohol to be found.
T: Follows the nose with potent flavors of lightly bitter dark chocolate, sweet fudge, deep roasted malt, and dark leather. I get notes of blackberry and dark fruits in the finish, and the aftertaste is full of lingering chocolate and roast.
M: Huge full body, viscous and extremely chewy mouthfeel, and very airy and frothy carbonation that bubbles up in my mouth after each sip. No trace of alcohol burn, almost no bitterness. Very smooth and decadent.
O: I was pleasantly surprised by how good this one was. Nothing the most complex stout, but it doesn’t have anything off putting to me. I never had it fresh, but after couple years in the bottle this is drinking perfectly. Thanks again StormKing47.

More chocolates here. Cocoa nibs meet smoke and a hint of metallic tang, then give way to bits of vanilla and date. Flashes pf teriyaki. The swallow brings the bitter, both from spicy hops and torched malt. Smooth finish.

Medium body, good silky quality. Fizzy as it moves. Hot on the tongue from booze.

Appearance – The beer is served a black color with a one finger cola brown head. The head fades relatively fast to give a good level of lacing.

Smell – The aroma is a sweet blend of light chocolate, vanilla and molasses. Mixed with these smells are notes of a a earthy and citrus hop , some coffee and a very light bourbon smell.

Taste – The taste is on the sweeter side overall, but is nicely balanced by roasted and malty flavors as well. It begins with flavors of a dark brown bread mixed with molasses and brown sugar sweetness. A sweet chocolate cake flavor mixed with vanilla come to the tongue. Some more roasted malt accompanied by a lighter earthy hop flavor as well as a good bourbon alcohol flavor come to the tongue at the end, and with the sweet leave a very satisfying roasted boozy sweet flavor to linger on in the mouth.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is on the creamier side with a rather average carbonation level . The creamy body is nice for the darker, sweet and bourbon flavors of the brew allowing them all to linger and be fully sensed by the tongue.

Overall –This is one fantastic imperial stout. It has a nice blend of sweet, malt, roast, booze and hop. I hop they make this more then just a rotation. Troegs needs a good permanent imperial stout and I think they have it with this one. Delicious.

At the brewery into a tulip glass, and later from a growler into a pilsner glass.

Almost ebony pour; only a hint of light tumbles through and carries a tinge of cordovan sheen. Large bubbly, open and frothy latte head...not creamy. Falls slowly, and leaves a thick ring and center island on top.. Webs of lacing cake on the glass.

Smells of sweet vanilla and caramel with a bright coffee acidity that's just a touch too dominant. Raisins and other dark fruits are alongside. There's a hint of tobacco, as well, that juts out from under wet, green hops and a squeeze of orange. Earthen depth rounds out a great nose.

The start of a mouthful is almost soft and creamy, feeling subtly like evergreen that carries in the entree of toffee mocha taste. But briny java slices through and blooms into sweet spices, like cumin, and royal bitter hoppiness in the middle. Alcohol flavor warms in behind the bite, but is enveloped in toasted wheat and earthy chew. The aftertaste is long, full of astringent bitterness and slick, mildly tangy methyl salicylate and related oils.

Mouthfeel is the right fit with a smooth start that fills up with both glycerine and bubbles about a third of the way into each taste. The carbonation is just enough to balance out the heft--just a touch more would be perfection, as it would also contain the booze. A good chewiness to join the bright bitterness.

I would be thrilled to have this monster for breakfast and dessert every day that ends in "y"!

A- Pours a very dark black with about a half finger of thick fairly dark mocha brown head that has about average retention and recedes to a wispy layer leaving thin lacing along the sides of the glass. Nice carbonation for a stout with decent consistency. This is exactly how an ideal stout should look.

T- Cocoa powder, chocolate fudge cake, subtle hints of plums, cherries, and tobacco. Finishes with cocoa, faint coffee, a bit of leather, and little bit more tobacco. Aftertastes of dark vinous fruits and cocoa powder. Nicely balanced and fairly complex, I wouldn't age this too much longer as it seems like it may have picked up just a hint of acidity.

O- This was a fantastic stout that I thoroughly enjoyed drinking. It had an almost perfect feel and appearance and nice complexity for a non-barrel-aged stout in both the aroma and taste. I don't know how much longer I'd age this for but it is still definitely drinking nicely. I wish Troegs would make this in their regular lineup.

Thanks to robieobie1 for this extra. Black-ish, dark, dark brown pour with a head that's on the darker side of "tan". It builds up slowly and recedes pretty quickly, and even with some aggressive swirling, it's hard to coax back to life.

The aroma is different; slightly nutty and seemingly very sweet, almost even to the point of being cloying on the nostrils. Some sweet cocoa and what seems to be lots of molasses as well. There's kind of a weird off-aroma that I'm picking up, too, but can't quite put my finger on. I wanna say soy, but I'm not 100% positive. It's definitely weird, though. Aside from the possible off-aroma, the nose still seems a bit too sweet and abrasive from the start.

Impending Descent rolls across my palate, thick and oily - I get a huge diabetes-like jolt in my senses. Very, very sweet, syrupy, and cloying out of the gate. It's got almost a sickeningly sweet quality to it, but in a borderline unacceptable way. Some "sweeter" stouts (Dark Lord, Darkness, etc) control the sweetness better, but it just seems unbalanced, unwanted, and over the top here. The flavor compound is strange, too. I'm picking up lots of molasses and anise, a weird-ass vegetal flavor that doesn't play well with the others, and a strange soy sauce-like salty finish. Maybe some very light chocolates, but these other flavors are too distracting to get anything else out of it.

Hmm, not sure if I got a funky bottle or if this is really how it was supposed to be. Weird collaboration of flavors; anise, soy, molasses, and way too unbalanced on the sweetness. Maybe this one just isn't for me. Thanks again to robie for the bottle, though.

This was a very tasty beer that kept its act together right through room temp warming. Rich, dark, and roastytoasty; this is an extremely drinkable beer for all its heft. The Thursday evening crowd was enthusiastically enjoying the "Trips" and Descent on a clear, cold night. These guys can make anything they want. Let 'er rip.